Programmatic in MENA region
- Author: Natalya Lenko
MENA is the Middle East and North Africa region. The region consists of approximately 10 countries including GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). GCC comprises of six countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates).
Digital Ad Market
Programmatic advertising is developing rapidly in the Middle East and in particular in GCC. This is due to an increasing number of digital agencies and Google partners in Dubai. However, many of the largest MENA brands still use the services of agencies based in London.
GCC is, in many ways, ahead of other countries in MENA in its approach to programmatic advertising and in understanding its benefits not only in performance campaigns, but also in branding.
Digital ad spend is expected to reach USD 6.51 billion in 2020 in the MENA region. In 2019, the costs amounted to USD 5.56 billion which is direct evidence that the industry is developing and growing.
It is projected that by 2022, 100% of brands will implement automated media buying.
Available Audience
Reach: 61.72 million cookies
Impressions: over 916 million
Ad Formats
Traditional display and mobile ads dominate among others. Meanwhile, outstream video and native formats are also quite popular and have good growth prospects.
MENA region is ranked second in the world by the number of daily Youtube video views.
In the last year, the share of digital advertising for categories such as the public sector, real estate and chocolate has increased.
Ad Inventory
Google and Facebook dominate in digital advertising in MENA region.
Top Website Ranking:
google.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, instagram.com, yahoo.com, linkedin.com, kooora.com, sabq.org, argaam.com, khaleejtimes.com, dubizzle.com
Top MENA Ad Networks:
- Google Ads
- IronSource
- Vungle
- Unity
- Search Ads
- Applovin
- Adcolony
- AdFalcon
- Headway
- EvaDav
- InTarget
- AdZouk
- inMoby
- Unilead Network
- Ampush
MENA Mobile SSP List:
- AdColony
- SmartyAds
- Hyper Ad Exchange
- GOWIDE Ad Network
- App Booster
- ByteDance
- Appodeal
- YOC Group
- Stack
With the development of mobile and digital technologies, as well as better access to the internet, it will not be long until programmatic advertising is mainly used everywhere in the region.